Migration generations
As migration generations are in the history of the United States those generations of African-American slaves called that at the time of development of the Deep South (1776-1865) hundreds of thousands of the old plantation regions ( Chesapeake Bay , Virginia , North Carolina , South Carolina ) in the new plantation regions ( Kentucky , Tennessee , Georgia , Alabama , Mississippi , Louisiana ) were carried away. This expression was coined by the historian Ira Berlin , who also introduced the term “ Second Middle Passage ” for this mass deportation .
The generations of the revolution preceded the generations of migrants .
Characteristic
Most of the slaves who were abducted into the Deep South via the Second Middle Passage were very young and found the separation from their relatives to be just as traumatic as their ancestors had experienced the deportation from Africa. Only a small minority of these slaves could write and communicate with relatives who stayed behind by post. In the early days of the Second Middle Passage in particular, the majority of slaves had to travel in the country and on foot, and many died of the exertion. At their destinations they often found nothing but wilderness, which they had to reclaim for planters who hoped to get rich by building plantations here . In contrast to their ancestors, however, the slaves of the migrant generations spoke a common language and enjoyed the advantage of being able to easily communicate with one another and establish new human relationships.
Under the high competitive pressure that shaped the economy in the up-and-coming Deep South, the planters kept their slaves in the column system and drove them non-stop to work. These slaves were unable to develop independent production and trading activities for their personal needs, which meant that they lost important agricultural, manual and economic know-how that their older Afro-American relatives who remained in the north had still possessed. As a result, the tradition of such practical knowledge no longer played a role in families either; Parents could no longer pass on professional qualifications to their children. Since neither black foremen nor specially qualified black skilled workers were provided in the column system of the Deep South, slaves found hardly any opportunities here to move up in any form within the plantation hierarchy. In contrast to the cultivation of tobacco or rice , the cultivation of cotton only required hard work almost all year round, but no special knowledge or experience. Even in households, slaves were only needed to a small extent, as the planters hardly led an elaborate lifestyle in the border region. Characteristic of the migrant generations was consequently a comprehensive de- qualification promoted by the slave owners , which was only moderated again after the pioneering phase. An exception to the rule that the slaves did not engage in skilled activities during the building phase was the situation in sugar cane cultivation , which experienced a revolution in Louisiana in the 19th century. In contrast to cotton cultivation, sugar cane cultivation required qualified skilled workers, which led to the fact that the hierarchy of employees on the sugar cane plantations grew on the contrary.
See also
literature
- Ira Berlin: Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America , Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998
- Ira Berlin: Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves , Cambridge, London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-674-01061-2 , pp. 53-56